


Lips on Lips.

by the-canary (siruru)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 1940s, Alternate Universe - 1950s, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bickering, Bucky Barnes Has PTSD, Denial of Feelings, Developing Relationship, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Feelings Realization, Light Angst, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Not Captain America: The Winter Soldier Compliant, Post-Captain America: The First Avenger, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-Relationship, Reader-Insert, Secret Crush, Slow Burn, Slow Dancing, Strangers to Lovers, Time Skips, Unplanned Pregnancy, Unresolved Romantic Tension, War Veteran Bucky Barnes, Wedding Planning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 05:51:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18005063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siruru/pseuds/the-canary
Summary: It was so easy to slip from dislike to love. Both of you learned that the hard way.





	Lips on Lips.

**Author's Note:**

> This is for @coffee-with-bucky ‘s writing challenge. in the beginning, this is a different bucky from the one i usually write. i am trying to picture what would happened if he had been saved after falling from the train and all that good stuff. so, it’s a little different from what i usually write, but I hope you enjoy it either way. 
> 
> Prompt: “I thought you said you couldn’t dance?” 
> 
> Feedback is always appreciated.

He sees her from outside the small bakery that is just a few blocks away from his large and always empty apartment. She smiles and laughs with a customer and it has James Barnes pausing in the middle of the busy New York street. He needs to know who she is, needs to see more of that smile she seems to throw with ease.

It takes him three days to pick up the courage to enter the bakery. It takes him another two of walking around and staring at everything they have to finally come up with what he is going to say and what he is going to buy.

It’s a bustling Monday morning when Bucky finally decides to get his sandwich set and face that beautiful redhead with those bright, brown eyes. He takes one breathe then two, as the cashier upfront yell next. However, as their eyes meet, his blood suddenly freezes. He knows that he isn’t the same smooth talker as before, but now he was more of a recluse and irritable when things didn’t go his way.

Did he really want to subject a beautiful gal to that?

“Excuse me,” a voice from behind declares in irritation as Bucky’s melancholy, anger, and annoyance all mix together at being pulled out of his thoughts, “Could you please hurry up and move?”

Blue eyes, with James ready to give the person bothering him a piece of his mind, turn to be meet with a floppy white hat and with a woman wearing a frown on her face.

To leave a long story short, they both end up banned from the bakery that day.

* * *

Rebuilding, even some after some years had passed since the end the war is still on in some countries and thus both Steve and Peggy find themselves –along with the rest of the reformed Howling Commandos– there most of the time since then. However, neither of them can wait any longer – the subtle need to call each other  _man and wife_  is budding more than ever, it might not help that Peggy is already a few months along, and while they could have it anywhere in the world – there are still precautions and people they want there.

Steve knows that he needs Bucky there –the man had been discharged after the whole train incident and sent back to New York to recuperate– and Peggy was adamant to having her parents there, along with one other person. And while Steve had never meet Peggy’s old school friend face-to-face, they had traded enough phone calls and telegraphs to be somewhat friendly with each other.

This was meeting for some of the closest people in their younger years to come to celebrate their impending union and future bliss – for the maid of honor and best man to get to know each other.

Neither Peggy nor Steve would have imagined, as they sat and sharing meaningful looks, that these two would have already known each other, much less dislike each other.

Steve knew from the very beginning that Bucky wasn’t in a good mood. The stocks –the profession that Bucky had chosen after graduating– hadn’t been doing so well and his metal arm, for all of Stark’s latest tech wonders, was hurting like hell. It didn’t help the nightmares came back every once and awhile either.

“The strongest stuff you got,” Bucky suppress through gritted teeth from the counter as the attendant simply nods. Bucky tries his best to be his charming, former self by throwing the woman a smile, but all she does is look at the blond at his side.

 _Invisible all over again_ , Bucky thinks bitterly before hitting the countertop none too lightly with his left arm. It causes the young woman to yelp and Steve to give his best friend a questioning glance, but none of those are the things that catch James Barnes’ attention.

“Who is the asshole causing so much commotion?” a voice asks in annoyance from the back, where Peggy is seated talking to her friend who had arrived sometime before Bucky had, as blue eyes turn to meet a familiar figure – one that had haunted him since New York.

“Who are you calling an asshole?” Bucky retaliated as he turns around and sees her sitting next to Peg in a black and white dress with her hair pinned back. Her eyes lit up in recognition and Bucky can’t help but be delighted that someone is paying attention to him, at least in some way.

She frowns and walks up, as Steve and Peggy look at each other: “The asshole that is making a commotion to this fine establishment  **for no apparent reason**.”

The engaged couple is lucky that the little shop is empty as they watch the pair begin to verbally spat, though they are quick to calm down once Bucky gets his espresso drink and Peggy throws in a few choice words.

However, the tension is still there as all parties agree to stay in Paris for the month for Steve and Peggy’s small wedding.

* * *

_Can you believe that idiot? How rude, I don’t understand how you would call him charming…_

Peggy can’t help but quirk an eyebrow as you keep going on about one James Buchanan Barnes on the way back to your hotel room.

_Such an infuriating dame! The nerve she has to…_

Steve can’t help but grin behind his drink as he watches Bucky go on about a certain gal once they go get drinks to celebrate his upcoming wedding and child.

Steve and Peggy can already see ten steps ahead of where this might be going and with a shared laugh – they plan together for the inevitable.

* * *

The four of you agree to meet every Friday to set up things between now and the middle of next month when the wedding is supposed to take place. You find out that Peggy wants to keep thing simple – she already has the flowers and dress ready, but there are things between her and her mother that need to be sorted out – you’re there to play mediator, make the lists and send them to Amanda Carter since Peggy was still tied up with SSR dealings.

Outside of supporting Steve, you weren’t sure what Bucky Barnes –sour-faced and drinking the most bitter on the menu– was supposed to be doing there.

He sat there most of the time in silence, as you talked with Steve or Peggy about their current dealings, either that or he was hidden behind a newspaper grumbling. It’s annoying and unpleasing, as you wonder where the hell the Bucky that Steve had told you so fondly about was.

It’s the second Friday when you finally decide to ask.

“If you’re busy with something else,” you ask sometime before Peggy and Steve arrive, as you realize both you and Bucky are more punctual than normal people should be, “Why are you here?”

Blue eyes look up to meet yours for a moment as he puts the paper down. There is a seriousness to his face, but instead of it being mixed with anger or annoyance –  he’s tired and maybe even a little sad.

“’ve been through hell and back with Stevie,” Bucky remarks as he closes in a bit more on you, “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him, ‘m sure ya feel the same way about Pegs.”

Your eyes meet and he gives you a crooked smile for good measure, for you to understand exactly what he means,  before leaning back into his chair. If he is a bit more vocal after that, you don’t say anything about it. Steve even gets him to share in on the stories from their childhood days more than usual and for some reason, you can’t help but feel that you might be a little wrong about your first impression when it comes to Bucky Barnes.

* * *

It’s the third Friday when it happens – Bucky is cursing up a storm after the message he got from his associates back home. He was losing more faster than usual in his current investments and while he would rather be heading back home right now –he promised he would be there for Steve and Peggy.

He’s tearing himself over the newspaper and numbers adding up when he sees a finger pointing to a small company he has never heard of before. Bucky looks up in his desperation to see you with a serious look on your face, as you tap on the paper.

“If you care about your investments,” you explain as you take a seat across from him, “I suggest placing them here, they might be small but they’ve got some good backing – both from Stark and Ford from what I have heard. If not, you should take it all out now.”

_“How the hell do you know that?”_

“Gathering information is my business, James,” you give him a smile with a wicked glint in your eyes and Bucky tries to ignore the shiver that goes down his spine, “And I am very good at it.”

“And you expect me to believe you?”

However, he doesn’t get an answer to that question as Steve and Peggy comes into the little shop. You simply give him a shrug before getting up and getting your order. If Bucky ever listens to you, he never tells you and if you saved him a couple of thousands — well, you most certainly didn’t know that either.

* * *

However, their world doesn’t stay quiet enough for the power couple planning their upcoming nuptials as both Steve and the rest of the Howling Commandos are called for a classified mission, Peggy is sent somewhere else though she can’t tell you anything else. Everything is close to being completed and her parents and younger brother have ready set sail. The couple frowns as they ask you if you could wait — it wouldn’t take them long.

“Can you both stay a little while longer?”

That is the question, as you pretend to ignore Bucky’s right hand turn a stiffening white due him gripping it too hard together, but you already knew the answer to that one.

“I have nowhere else to be,” you admit, trying to hide the obvious fact that you lacked a family or anyone besides Peggy and your job with a bright smile, “I’ll wait as long as you need of me.”

Bucky agrees to the same, but you can’t help but wonder —as he has that glassy-eyed look and somber smile for a quick second— if he would rather be following Steve down that familiar road once more.

* * *

However, Bucky –through the war and work– had become a man of routine and even when he knows that there is going to be none waiting at the cafe that Friday after both Steve and Peggy had left, he goes anyways. He is surprised to see you there, sitting by the piano the owner has tucked away in the corner, with a cup of tea at hand. You’re moving your fingers to-and-for on the keys, like [a familiar song](http://bassiter.tumblr.com/post/181850127002/moonlight-serenade-by-glenn-miller-except-playing) that a much younger Bucky Barnes used to dance to filters into the small shop.

The owner simply nods to him a greeting as Bucky finds himself walking to where you are. There are a million questions on his mind as you pause playing midway to turn up from your seat and give him a questioning glance. He gives you an awkward smile and for once the ever-present feeling to fight or just cause you some type of annoyance is drained out of him with the realization of just how pretty you are sitting there in that light-colored dress and painted lips.

“That was really nice,” Bucky can’t help but admit as your smile grows just a bit, “Where ya learn to play?”

“Etiquette school,” you explain with a slight frown while moving a bit to the side –as a peace offering for now– and allowing Bucky to share the piano bench with you, “Though it’s probably the only thing I learned there.”

“Now, that sounds like a story,” he remarks as you look at him, sizing him up, for a moment before you move forward with talking a bit more about yourself.

And boy do you, as you end up talking about how your parents ended up settling in England for diplomatic purposes and you ended up taking classes here and there for a proper “debut” – that’s how you meet one Margaret Carter, who while you didn’t see eye-to-eye on some things they were teaching understood you on some level. It was the start of a lifelong friendship, though it did come with dumps here and there – namely when one of you got in trouble.  

“–And the Peg punches him straight in the face,” you let out a huge laugh at the memory before covering with your hand, “We were both sent to the headmaster’s office and weren’t allowed in the same classes all year.”

“Troublemakers, the both of ya,” Bucky can’t help but chuckle with a shake of his head as you keep laughing.

“Like you and Steve are any better, Mr. Barnes,” you answer back as Bucky tries to defend himself by stating that the back alley fighter was Steve.

And you spend the rest of the afternoon trading stories and showing Bucky what else you could play on the piano.

* * *

It’s between the first and second Friday without Steve and Peggy that Bucky realizes that he might actually like you in a _certain type of way._  Yes, you could be an annoyance, but you were a spitfire and when you smile – well, it makes the whole room shined. But, it wasn’t like before that Bucky said a few choice words and smiled and had all the gals at his feet – he didn’t feel like doing that anymore and he was sure that wasn’t going to work with you.

“You should just tell her, Buck,” Steve remarks in the middle of the week in their quick phone call, “You might be surprised with the outcome.”

“It’s not that easy anymore, Stevie,” Bucky fusses while going over the numbers again in his room alone, though he would rather not be.

“You should take my word on it, punk,” Steve quips and James can just imagine that shit-eating grins on his face, “When ‘ve I ever steered ya wrong?”

“Too many times, pal,” Bucky sighs out with a laugh before saying goodbye.

There are too many things running through his head as he lays down for the night – of what could be and your pretty laugh as you played a very bad rendition of Fur Elise. He thinks about what you like and what it would be like if you said no – if you could walk around Central Park together or if you could just walk around Brooklyn. They are all silly thoughts, but for the first time in a long time – Bucky ends up going to sleep without any nightmares bothering him.

He keeps it to himself that on his morning walk he finds a hairpiece in the shade of your eyes and he decides to buy it in that exact moment.

* * *

The following Friday, Bucky is ready – there is a speech in his head and he’s ready to declare all his emotions, regardless of what you might feel for him. I mean, really – who in their right mind would like the man that had treated them so rudely before?

He gets his answer when he sees you sitting outside of the cafe for once, underneath the bright blue sky with some man that he has never seen before and as much as Bucky shouldn’t jump to conclusions – he can’t help it at the sound of your laughter in certain way he has never heard before.

Bucky lets out a sigh of defeat before turning around and going back the way he came from.

* * *

You end up trying to connect with Peggy when you realize that Bucky never came to meet you that afternoon. However, Peggy isn’t in the best place to get a connection, which leads to trading short messages through telegraph with her instead.

_DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO BUCKY?_

Peggy takes some time to answer back, but her response makes you freeze in realization.

_HE IS FINE, BUT WHY ARE YOU SO WORRIED ABOUT HIM?_

You knew why though, had known since New York actually.

* * *

It doesn’t take you long, that next morning, to find out where Bucky is staying though you probably always knew –just across the cafe in a suite too big and lavish for him– and had decided to tuck the information away until it was necessary. Now, with feeling and something else on the line, it seemed like a good time to go out there.

You dressed in that familiar dress and hat from the first time you had talked to him, even though you had watched him for much longer than that and head to his suite. You knock once then twice, hearing his voice yelling that he wants to be left alone, which only leads to you knocking harder until you hear him moving about.

You have a growing mental list of all the things you want to yell at him, but that all die when he opens the door and you finally see him after a whole day apart – loose button up shirt and slacks with mussed hair and sad blue eyes.

 _“Idiot_ ,” is the only thing you manage to say before grabbing and pulling his face to meet yours in a kiss. He lets out a sigh, as he slowly comes to understand everything that you are trying to convey in that one action as he pulls you in closer and you end up closing the door with your heel.

Neither of you let go of each other, trading in the long kiss for short nips and bites when air becomes needed once more. He drags your body closer to his as you move about the suite. However, Bucky only lets you go once, as you make it to the master bedroom and keep scattering clothes about as he stares at you with a serious look in those baby blues of his.

“And that man I saw you with yesterday?” he asks breathlessly.

“Peggy’s dressmaker,” you explains through puffs of air and kiss-swollen lips, “Needed an update about her measurements.”

“You’re an infuriating woman, doll,” Bucky lets of a relieved sigh and gives you a silly grin before picking you up and throwing you into the large mattress. You can’t help but laugh as well – surely not believing that it could have ended like this for the two of you.

However, things are taken slowly –for his own anxiety and your own personal fears– as you spend the rest of the evening talking quietly to each other and trading in soft, pliant kisses with one another.

If Steve hears a light giggle (after he tells Bucky that they are heading back to France) on the other side of the line, well he doesn’t say anything on the matter – waiting for how long it takes Peggy to put two and two together when she can’t reach you.

* * *

It takes them a little while longer for them get back, but the Carters and Howling Commandos –along with you and Bucky– are there to welcome the future of your best friends.

“–and do you, Steven Grant Rogers–”

It’s then that Peggy curses and starts falling to her knees, though Steve stops that from happening.

Peggy ends up going into labor before the priest can finish the nuptials and as everyone rushes to the hospital, you can’t help but squeeze Bucky’s hand just a bit tighter than usual as he leads you down the hallway.

Everyone is a mess with excitement and anxiety, but you can’t help –as you stare at bright blue eyes– thinking that everything was going to be okay.  

* * *

A few years down the road, once everything had settled down and with Sarah being a little older, Steve and Peggy have a much more extravagant wedding paid for by one Howard Stark in Upper Manhattan, though the guest lists is still rather tamed and you and Bucky still up with your former duties of best man and maid of honor.

However, the nature of your relationship is a bit different as you push him to the dance floor with a laugh as he can’t help but follow.

 ** _“I thought you said you couldn’t dance?”_**   Bucky can’t help but ask as you give him, remembering it wasn’t something you actually really enjoyed.  A wide smile on his face over the potential change before he twirls you around, though not enough to take any attention from the bride and groom.

“I’ve been practicing,” you remark vaguely, not ready to tell him that was trying to pick of the hobby that as of recently Bucky was trying to enjoy once more. He grins as he catches sight of a certain hairpiece placed perfectly within your stunning hair-do before trying back to look and Steve, Peggy, and little Sarah dancing.

It passes, but you can’t help but be a little curious: “Why do you keep staring at Steve and Peg?”

“I’m just wondering,” Bucky states in a more confident voice as blue eyes turn to meet your own.

“About what?”

“Just how lovely you might look in a wedding dress,” he gives you that dashing smile you have gotten so used to, before dipping you to the sound of the song. Though, you let out the most undignified squeal over the sudden act and his response.

Bucky laughs, hearty and full of love, as you pull him in for a kiss. The both of you silently thanking the married couple for bringing you together, as a certain velvet box stays hidden in Bucky’s pocket for a bit longer.  


End file.
